Conference Information

Workshop on Standard Average European46th Annual Meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea

B. Whorf coined the term Standard Average European (SAE) when studying American Indian languages. To facilitate their comprehension, Whorf put them in contrast with the well described languages of Europe. In recent decades, the idea of SAE caught attention of a number of linguists. The most extensive and prolific has been the EUROTYP project. Its main objective was to prove the idea that besides manifold common genetic features European languages bear resemblance to each other thanks to certain shared features resulting from language contacts. Apart from remarkable results, research in this field has indicated many problems that can be summarized in the following questions:

1. What should be analysed - languages or dialects?2. What are the borders of SAE? What languages represent its nucleus and which languages are on its periphery? 3. What should be the catalogue of SAE features?

The workshop aims to exchange views on these topics and any other relevant issues, such as:

- evaluation of the individual linguistic features (ranging over all language levels) and their relevance to the concept of SAE; - methodology of research; - state-of-the-art and the perspectives of research into SAE, and any and all questions related to the exploration of SAE.